During sold-out European concert tours in the mid-1950s, Louis
Armstrong earned the nickname "Ambassador Satch." His reception abroad
helped inspire a successful goodwill diplomacy effort that sent
America's top jazz musicians around the world, garnering new fans for
jazz and American culture.

In conjunction with the Satchmo SummerFest (July 30-Aug.
1), a photography exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum's Old U.S. Mint
documents Armstrong and fellow musicians' missions as "Jazz
Ambassadors." Armstrong's international travels are the subject of
several seminars at the festival's scholarly portion. Concerts and
events also celebrate Satchmo's legacy.

Former Columbia Records producer George Avakian coined
the ambassadorial nickname after journalists began referring to
Armstrong as America's "new secret weapon," says historian Penny Von
Eschen, author of Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play
the Cold War. Columbia Records released recordings from that trip
on an album titled Ambassador Satch, and Armstrong appeared on
Willis Conover's radio show on Voice of America to promote it and talk
about his travels.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union criticized
American materialism, racism and inability to produce fine art
comparable to its traditions in ballet and classical music. After
noticing the success of Armstrong's European tours, Congressman Adam
Clayton Powell Jr. suggested sending jazz musicians abroad to refute
the criticisms. President Dwight D. Eisenhower embraced the idea and
the State Department organized goodwill diplomatic missions of jazz
musicians, dubbed "Jazz Ambassadors," to nations around the globe.

"Satchmo set the stage for Jazz Ambassadors," says
Phoebe Jacobs, who serves on the advisory board for the Louis Armstrong
House Museum in New York City. "He was the first international icon in
the '30s, the first role model; he opened the doors."

The official "Jambassadors" tours started with Dizzy
Gillespie in 1956 and expanded to include other jazz icons such as Duke
Ellington and Benny Goodman. The tours were a hit with foreign
government officials and citizens alike.

Armstrong's visit to Ghana in 1956 was cause for
temporary cessation of a civil war so people could hear him play in a
soccer arena. One photo famously captured Armstrong carried through the
streets on a makeshift throne.

"His presence was monumental," Jacobs says. "Everybody
loved him. The prime minister invited him, but the people had to love
him to keep him there."

"Armstrong was the perfect ambassador," says Robert
O'Meally, former director of Columbia University's Center for Jazz
Studies. "Satchmo could relate well to everybody. He transcended the
use the State Department had for him because he was so much greater
than people realized."

Armstrong's visit was so popularly embraced in Ghana the
government feared riots might break out due to the massive crowds he
drew. But he made a personal impact as well, O'Meally says. Armstrong
sang "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue?" in front of then Prime
Minister Kwame Nkrumah, who was moved to tears by the double entendre
about discrimination and violence.

"He was an electrifying and life-changing artist,"
O'Meally adds. "That's why he's still remembered as a savior."

Armstrong was the first jazz musician asked to go behind
the Iron Curtain, Jacobs says. But back in the U.S. during the
desegregation struggle in the American South, Central High School in
Little Rock, Ark., refused to admit nine African-American students.
Armstrong watched in disbelief as the federal government refused to
intervene. He made national news when he spoke out against Eisenhower,
and he declined the invitation to represent America in a tour to the
Soviet Union.

"He couldn't respect a country that embarrassed him and
wouldn't let in black children," Jacobs says. "His wife told me that
she had never seen him cry until this happened. He was a fierce,
passionate American, and civil rights was important to him."

Segregation wasn't just a problem in public schools. A
New Orleans performance went sour when the venue wouldn't allow him to
perform with an integrated band.

"He loved New Orleans and adored his city, but after
that, he wanted to leave for good," Jacobs says. For the greatest
portion of his life, Armstrong made his home in Queens, N.Y. "He said,
'Piano keys are black and white, so that's what you need to make good
music.'"

Many subjects in Armstrong's music and life will be
discussed at the Satchmo SummerFest. O'Meally will discuss the history
of the Jambassador missions and the photography exhibit Jam Session:
America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, which runs through
Sept. 25.